


Fatherly

by GothamLioness1



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Dick Grayson's Birthday, Dick calls Bruce "Dad", Don't repost. I'm the only one allowed to do that., Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Happy Birthday Calls are the stupidest plot device ever, Happy Ending, He ends up being a bit of an asshole though, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, Ignores the spin-off comics, It ends up ok though, It's not really clear whether the mention is of Brutalia or Batcat, Multi-POVs, One Shot, Past Abuse, Sorry Not Sorry, Terra has Low-self-esteem, Terra is a Titan, Terra really just wants to be loved, Things Change is retconned, bit of a 'meet the parents', daddy!Bats, so i tagged both!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27043597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothamLioness1/pseuds/GothamLioness1
Summary: It was crazy. Throughout the entire visit Bruce had made it clear he hated Terra, and wanted her away from Dick. So why was he suddenly acting so fatherly towards her now?
Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Selina Kyle (mentioned), Bruce Wayne/Talia al Ghul (mentioned), Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson/Tara Markov, Tara Markov & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Fatherly

**Author's Note:**

> So, this all started with a dream.
> 
> The dream was a lot weirder than this.
> 
> Had to change basically everything in order to get it to work.
> 
> There’s an implied mention of Batcat and/or Brutalia. Thought I should mention that.
> 
> Italics = Flashbacks
> 
> If anyone knows how to that, then please let me know.
> 
> With that out of the way, enjoy!

**Bruce’s POV**

I should be happy. After nearly 2 years my son had come home to visit for his fifteenth birthday.

We were walking into the fancy restaurant. Dick was next to me, his black hair free without that stupid hair gel. His little blue eyes free from that mask that he hadn’t taken off in a worrisome amount of time. He walked there, complaining about the suit he was wearing.

But I Wasn't happy. Instead I couldn’t stop fretting about the girl next to him.

The girl had blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. She wore a light blue dress and white heels. She walked on the other side of my son and held his hand while giggling at his complaints about the suit that had turned into anti-formal suit jokes.

Her name was Terra. Ok, that was technically just her code name. Tara Markov was her real one. But to me she would always be Terra, Deathstroke’s apprentice who had nearly killed my son.

But according to Robin (Dick’s hero identity) she’d reformed. As if it wasn’t bad enough that she was back on his team -the Teen Titans- now she also had to be his girlfriend.

We sat down at the table I had reserved. The young couple sat next to each other, and me and Alfred across from them.

“Theory: formal suits were created by Satan himself as a uniform for prisoners in hell. He just thought it would be fun to bring them to Earth and trick humans into thinking that they're fancy and see if they’d actually wear these.”

I’d be elated to see more of Dick’s childish side -I hadn’t seen enough of it recently- if I wasn’t so suspicious of Terra.

“Let’s be honest, Dick. All formal wear in general was created by Satan. Have you tried high heels? No wonder Starfire doesn’t understand them! Although her positive feelings towards fancy dresses is a mystery to me.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Tara, there are plenty of women who enjoy dressing up, and it’s not your place to judge.”

Dick narrowed his eyes in response. “Dad, she said a joke. A joke that in no way would have offended you considering I’ve been saying the male version of the joke for years.”

I frowned. Maybe I shouldn’t have taught him all those detective skills. It wasn’t like they seemed to be helping him find Deathstroke, they just helped him figure out my true feelings about Terra.

Luckily before an argument could break out a waiter walked over to our table.

“Hello, I’m Kate and I’ll be being your waiter tonight. Is there anything I can get you to drink?” She asked with a smile.

“I’ll have some water” I guess I just need something refreshing to cleanse my mind of this madness.

“I’ll have some Green Tea.” Alfred said from beside me.

“I’ll have some soda” The little traitor added.

“That’s a rather sugary drink, Tara” I could see her uncomfortable expression and couldn’t help but get a little bit of satisfaction from it.

However when I turned to Dick, he didn’t seem to share my amusement. “I’ll have some soda too, and when my Dad doesn’t complain it’ll just prove that he needs to stop being so rude to my girlfriend.”

“Oooookay…” the waiter said nervously “coming right up.” as she walked away I heard her mutter “Why can’t parents ever just be nice to their kid's significant other?”

I clenched my fist. Why did she think it her place to criticize my parenting? I’m just looking out for Dick.

“She’s right you know” I turned to see it was Dick who was talking “You’ve been downright cruel to her this whole visit.”

I frowned “Not as cruel as she was to you 8 monthes ago”.

“That was different”

“You’re right. It was different. She betrayed your trust, love, and friendship. I’m just looking out for my son.”

“Dad, st-”

“Why should I be nice to her? She’s nothing more than a traitor!”

“Ahem” we both turned towards Terra “I’m going to go to the bathroom” she said quietly before walking away.

“Look what you did! Now she’s probably crying in the Bathroom, blaming herself for what happened!” Dick was basically yelling now.

“Well it’s not like it wasn’t her fault!” I argued “and I have a right to be distrustful towards her after what happened!”

Dick sighed “And here you said you were going to stop babying me.” he said coldly “Now if you wouldn’t mind I need to check on my girlfriend.”

I sighed as he got up and followed in the direction Terra went. There was a lot of people staring, and I was starting to become aware of the scene we had made, but I also didn’t really care.

I was too worried about Dick.

* * *

**Dick’s POV**

I couldn’t believe him.

When I came back to Gotham to visit it was because he promised that he’d learned his lesson and understood that I could handle myself.

But no, and even worse now Tara was the one getting burned. It was a week-long visit, and the last two days hadn’t made me very optimistic about the next five.

I walked over to the bathroom, thankful that we were in the one restaurant I’d been in which had a unisex multi-stall restroom.

“Tara?” I whispered as I opened the door.

“Tara, it’s me Dick” I said, a little louder this time when I heard someone crying in one of the stalls.

I walked over to it “Tara, you in there?” she opened it up in response.

She quietly fell into my arms, crying. I just held her tight.

This had been happening a lot lately, and it killed me inside to see how insecure her time with Slade had made her.

After a few minutes she began drying her tears “sorry.”

I raised an eyebrow “What are you sorry for? You did nothing wrong”

She gave a weak laugh “Nothing? I betrayed your team, -the first people to take me in and care for me despite my lack of control- to a psychopath. I-”

“Was manipulated by a madman” I interrupted her. “Stop blaming yourself. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Ignoring all the flaws in your argument, to make things worse now I’m getting in the way of your relationship with your father.” Terra continued

“You're not getting in the way. He’s just being an asshole.” I reassured her.

“That’s an awfully strong word to be calling your own father” Terra remarked

“Well he is acting like one” I insisted

“Are you sure I’m not getting in the way?” She asked nervously “Cause it sure seems that way.”

“No, he’s the one getting in the way”

“But you two are arguing because he doesn’t trust me” Tara reminded me.

“It’s his problem that he doesn’t accept you” I stated.

“Well he has a good reason to not accept me” She paused “Do you think he’ll ever like me?”

“Of course he will. If Raven can come around two times, he’ll come around for sure!” I said, hoping my positive tone would disguise my own uncertainty.

As I sat there, holding her in my arms, I couldn’t help but wonder what if he never did come around? What would we do then?

* * *

**A Few Hours later**

**Bruce’s POV**

_Terra: Traitor?, Jump City’s Downfall, Terra’s Return?..._ I sighed. It didn’t matter how many times I reread the articles, they never seemed to help me make sense of Terra.

I glanced back at the security footage, cursing myself for letting Dick talk me into taking the security cameras out of the bedrooms all those years ago.

“It just doesn’t make sense, Alfred” I said to the butler beside me. “Why would she betray Deathstroke if she’s evil? But if she really did change, why not return to Makovia?”

Alfred sighed “Perhaps Master Bruce, you should just ask her? And give her a chance? I’m sure it would mean a lot to Master Dick.”

I frowned “And let her cloud my judgement she did with Dick? Sorry, Alfred but no.”

“Master Bruce, I hate to be rude, but didn’t you tell Master Dick you were going to begin trusting him and his judgement?” he asked.

“This is different Alfred” I objected “It’s not that I don’t trust him. It’s that I don’t trust Terra. And I have every right to be considering she’s an ex-criminal.”

He raised an eyebrow “It is not as though the woman in your life is all that innocent either.”

I blushed “That’s different! She would never do anything to harm me!” I said, objecting again.

Alfred sighed “I’m sure that’s what Master Dick would say about Miss Tara.” The Old Butler said “Sometimes it’s best to give second chances, because when you do you’ll often be positively surprised.”

I just shrugged him off as he walked away, but I couldn’t get his words about giving her a second chance out of my head.

* * *

**The Next Morning**

It was breakfast and the Teenagers were still in their rooms, so like yesterday me and Alfred had to go wake them up.

I’d wanted to wake Dick up, but I also didn’t feel comfortable with Alfred waking Terra. So I’d ended up with the responsibility of waking her instead.

I knocked on the door “Tara? It’s time for breakfast.” I waited a few minutes and when I got no response just went in.

As I suspected -unlike yesterday- she was still asleep. I sighed before walking over to wake her up.

“Tara, it’s time for Breakfast!” I announced whilst shaking her sleeping form.

What happened next came as a great surprise.

“Stay away!” She yelled as she woke up with a start. I could recognize this type of behavior anywhere.

_“Mami! Tati!” The 9 year-old boy cried out as he awoke._

“Tara, calm down! It’s me, Bruce!”

_“Dick, it’s ok! It’s me Bruce, remember?”_

The girl awkwardly settled down and spluttered “Sorry, didn’t realize it was you. That was stupid of me, huh? Sorry ag-”

“Please, stop apologizing.” I interrupted before awkwardly comforting the nearly crying girl.

_I pulled Dick into a hug, knowing that he was near tears._

_“Sorry” he mumbled._

_“Don’t be” I assured him “I used to do the same thing after my parents died.”_

When I left her to get dressed a few minutes later, I was still trying to wrap my head around what just happened.

It didn’t make any sense, she’d acted like… like Dick had. Back before my stubbornness gene had rubbed off on him.

It didn’t matter how good at acting she was, no one could begin acting right as they woke up. Especially that well. It just wasn’t possible. And I would’ve noticed if she was pretending to be asleep -being both a parent and a crimefighter teaches you these kinds of things.

And that would mean… that she probably had changed.

* * *

**A Couple Days later**

**Terra’s POV**

It didn’t make any sense. He’d hated my guts the first two days, so why had he started acting so nice to me the last couple days?

We were watching a movie. I was snuggled up next to Dick who held me protectively. I think he’d noticed his Father’s sudden change in behavior, and suspected that it meant Mr. Wayne was going to hurt me in some way.

But I wasn’t so sure that the change in behavior had such bad intentions. After all, Mr. Wayne was still a superhero.

Right as luck would have it, it was then that Mr. Wayne’s kind old butler Alfred walked in.

“Master Dick, I hate to interrupt but there are more ‘Happy Birthday’ video calls.

Dick sighed before getting up. “I’ll be back soon” he promised before leaving with Alfred, leaving me alone with Mr. Wayne.

I wished I believed him that it would be quick, but considering how long those things normally took and the implication that there was multiple… well let’s just say things weren’t in our favor.

Mr. Wayne grabbed the remote and turned the TV off. “Tara, I think we need to talk.”

“Yeah, I guess we do” I nervously acquiesced. “Can I go first with the questions?”

He shrugged “Sure, why not”

“Why are you suddenly being so nice to me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well the first couple days I was here you hated me. Then you suddenly began comforting me when I woke up from nightmares, protecting me when we went on patrol, and being an all around nicer person to be around.” I explained.

“Fair enough” He responded “Actually it all began the first time I woke you from a nightmare. You just seemed so scared. So… innocent. There was no way you were a good enough actor to fake it. And it hit me then that I was being cruel to not even give you a chance to redeem yourself. And for that I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine” I reassured him “You’d have been a bad parent if you just completely trusted me blindly after everything I did.”

“I hate to be rude, but that’s not what I meant. I was apologizing for completely assuming you were still bad and not considering any other possibilities, not for ever doubting you.” he awkwardly admitted “Actually I do have a question I need to ask before I’m able to completely accept you.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well… I don’t know how personal this is to you, but when you were freed from stone. Why didn’t you go back to Makovia? Isn’t being princess there a pretty sweet deal? In fact as long as I’m at it, when you woke up from the nightmare, you yelled in english. The native language of Makovia is latvian. What's going on with that?”

I gave a dry laugh. “You’re a good detective, but you made one mistake. When Dick told you I was the daughter of the King of Makovia, you just assumed I was legally recognized as his daughter too.”

He gave me a confused look. “What do you mean?”

I sighed “Should I just explain my backstory?” He nodded.

“Alright. It all started fifteen years ago.” I began “The King of Makovia -my father- had to visit America for business reasons. While he was there he slept with a small-time actress -my mother- and expected that to be the end of it. However my Mother got pregnant with a little girl -me.

“My childhood started off pretty normal. Well as normal as the childhood of the illegitimate daughter of the King of Makovia could be. Despite being a single mother, my mom got more than enough hush money from my father to keep us fed. He really didn’t want the whole thing to go public, But I wouldn’t have revealed it even without all the money.

“And no it’s not because of the goodness of my heart or anything like that. I’m not about to say something that prideful. Instead it was because of my half-brother Brian. He was a few years older than me, and my best friend in the whole world. He’d visit me whenever he could, and we enjoyed every moment together. When he wasn’t visiting, we stayed in touch though calls and text.

“It all changed when I was 8 years old and my Mother died in a car accident and all kind of went downhill from there.

“I wasn’t as lucky as Dick to have such a loving foster family, instead they were abusive alcoholics who tended to only beat and ignore me. They didn’t even let me go to a proper school in fear that I’d report their abusive behavior. Like, damn right I would have!

“But you know the worst part? They were getting paid to abuse me! The hush money that was originally mailed to my mother was now theirs. And to make sure nobody suspected anything, they sent forged letters to Brian. From what I’ve heard he suspected something anyway though.

“ Of course, I always was too impulsive for my own good. Rather than do the smart thing and wait for my brother to put the pieces together, I ran away.

“Of course an 8 year-old all alone is an easy target for lowlives. I hadn’t even been on my own for a month when I got kidnapped by a terrorist organization.

“They experimented on me, hoping to create a human weapon to use for their own unsavory needs. It worked, only not the way they had hoped. I nearly killed myself in the chaos I caused when escaping the lab. I was barely ten at this time.

“I spent the next four years running across America, searching for a home. But everywhere I went I always ended up losing control and getting rejected for it. Until I met your son and his team.

“Dick probably told you most of what happened with Slade. But he also probably glossed over how I got ressurected. It sort of ties everything together.

“It started on what started off as a normal day for the Titans when their tower was attacked by a rock-like figure. They defeated him, of course. A Little too much, and Raven had to check if he was ok. They were surprised to learn that while he wasn’t injured, he was my brother.

“As it turns out Brian had been searching for me ever since I ran away. The only problem was the only leads he had -the letters- well, they were fake. After about a year he had to come to terms with the harsh realization that there was no way he could find me without one.

“However he did want to at least find a way to make sure no one else had to lose a sister the way he did. So he decided to ask the family scientist Dr. Helga Jace to help him gain powers. Though she was reluctant at first, he was eventually able to convince her that it was for the better of Makovia.

“I’m not sure whether it was because of our DNA, love for each other, or just by chance, but whatever the reason we ended up with the same powers.

“When he heard about the near destruction of Jump City and my involvement, Brian -now a Makovian superhero named Geo-Force- went to Jump City and attacked the Titans thinking that they’d corrupted me. After they cleared things up, they brought him to my stone prison.

“It was meant to help him come to terms with my fate, but he was able to do what none of them were able to. He was able to free me, and I awoke to everyone I loved’s excitement.

“So to answer your question, I stay with the Titans because they are just as much my family as Geo-force. And as much as I love Brian, Titans tower is my home through and through.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you” He said solemnly while putting a hand on my shoulder. “I’m even more sorry that I had to bring up such bad memories.”

“It’s no big deal” I reassured him.

“And well I know we got off on a rocky start, but if you wouldn’t mind the idea of us trying to…” He paused “restart our relationship on better grounds, that would be great”

I grinned “Are you kidding me!? Of course I don’t mind! That’s an amazing idea!” I took a moment to compose myself “I mean that would be nice”

“And Tara?”

“Yeah?”

“Just know that from now on, you always have a home in Wayne Manor”

My grin only got bigger, but this time I was able to keep my excitement in check. “Thank you. Mr Wayne”

He smiled “Call me Bruce.”

“Ok, Bruce…” The words were odd on my tongue, but I could get used to them.

Actually, I could just plainly get used to this side of Bruce.

* * *

**A Few Days Later**

**Alfred’s POV**

I was proud of Master Bruce, I really was. Over the course of a week he had gone from being outright cruel to Miss Tara to being almost too welcoming to her.

Her and Master Dick were preparing to leave, and me and Master Bruce were wishing them goodbye when he began embarrassing himself.

“So” He began “When’s the wedding going to be?”

“Wait wait, what?” Master Dick asked, blushing.

“When’s the wedding?” he repeated “Won’t you two be adorable up there, getting married? I mean no one will take it seriously since you’re both so little and adorable, but still.”

Miss Tara started giggling while Master Dick looked at his foster father suspiciously “What’s going on? Since when did you approve of our relationship?”

“Since I got to know Tara here a little better.” Master Bruce said, exchanging a smile with her. Master Dick loosened up a little bit, finally understanding that his father’s change of behavior wasn’t a ploy.

I smiled. Of course the almost in almost too friendly made a big difference.

**Author's Note:**

> So how was it? Horrible? Ok? Decent?
> 
> I don’t know why but I’ve always liked the idea of Bruce being fatherly towards Terra. However most of the time when I think about him being fatherly towards her, I imagine her relationship with Dick as platonic. 
> 
> But when I was making this I decided to put them together since I have always shipped them both romantically and platonically. I used to ship them more platonically, but making this made me like Robterra a lot more, and now I’m 50/50.
> 
> I’m aware that the ‘Teen Titans Go’ comic series gave Tara a different backstory, but I don’t really count that series as canon. I have too many issues with it. Including her backstory. Like I hate comic book!Terra and really wish they would change her normal self to her 2003-2008 Teen Titans TV Show self (who I adore) and I get that they couldn’t really include her being an illegitimate child of the King of Markovia, since it a comic series for children, but it still all came off as bland. So I just mashed everything together, added a little of my own stuff, and tada! I now have a backstory for Terra!
> 
> When working on this I really realized just how much my idea of Terra’s return will change from story to story. In some the Titans just free her, in some she’s freed at the end of season 4 and pretends to lose her memory for a little bit before returning, in some (like this one) her brother frees her and in some she’s just stated to have returned and it’s all glossed over.
> 
> Point is she’ll normally have returned.
> 
> Bruce is kinda OOC huh? I mean Terra’s a little OOC too, but I mean she would probably be different after returning from Slade, you know?
> 
> I was going to include a part where Terra and Bruce talked about Dick, but couldn’t find anywhere to put it. Oh well.
> 
> Please leave a Comment and/or kudos! (Preferably both)


End file.
